Social Media

Can Crowdsourcing Make Any Dream Come True?

When's the last time you got something just because you asked for it? That's the premise behind Wish Upon a Hero, an online platform that allows anyone to post — or grant — a wish.

It's an interesting experiment in crowdsourced social good. After registering, anybody can post a wish for anything, whether it's for a positive goal like sending a terminally ill child to camp or simply asking for help with rent. It is then up to the community at large to decide if and who it should help.

So far, the results have been overwhelmingly positive. Since Wish Upon a Hero launched in 2007, more than 77,000 wishes have been granted. These include paying for a leukemia patient's "dream wedding," an appliance retailer that donated a refrigerator to a single mom with a newborn, a man who bought uniforms for a local little league team, a group of eighth graders that helped a fellow student whose home was lost in a fire, and a plastic surgeon who helped an uninsured breast cancer survivor.

While many of the wishes have a financial element, even more are about connecting people with unique skills. For example, a wish to throw a ball in Yankee stadium could be fulfilled with buckets of cash, or by a kind stadium groundskeeper.

Anyone can search through a list of wishes by category such as "need" versus "want," "disabilities," "cause supported" and more. Wish granters can choose to help anonymously or to be recognized on the website.

What do you make of the platform? And how much can we trust the crowd to make the best decision? Let us know in the comments below.

What's Hot

More in Social Media

What's New

What's Rising

What's Hot

Mashable
is a leading global media company that informs, inspires and entertains the digital generation. Mashable is redefining storytelling by documenting and shaping the digital revolution in a new voice, new formats and cutting-edge technologies to a uniquely dedicated audience of 42 million monthly unique visitors and 24 million social followers.